Updated ,first published
Cairns: Jake Weatherald has been dropped from the Australian team and fellow opener Matt Renshaw called up after their heavy loss to Bangladesh in the first Test in Darwin.
Weatherald made two low scores at Marrara Stadium and looked uneasy at the batting crease, having admitted that his fate would be out of his hands if he didn’t make a score in his hometown.
The brutality of the call was enhanced by the selectors’ decision not even to take Weatherald on to Mackay as part of the squad, a decision that may also rule him out of the Test tour of South Africa in October.
“You are required to make runs all the time when you’re out there, and I’ve got a good opportunity to play two games hopefully and make some runs,” Weatherald had said. “If I don’t do that, then yeah I put my fate in someone else’s hands and I haven’t done enough.
“It’s a challenge when people you respect say things about your batting, or your game. You’re naturally always looking for affirmation, and people to respect what you’re doing, but at the same time it’s a part of cricket.
“I understand now it’s just a part of the game I’m playing, but it’s a great challenge as well. That’s what makes Test cricket so hard, you’re in the spotlight, you need to do a lot of things, not just make runs. If you can do it all, it makes for a good career.”
Renshaw made his Test debut as a 20-year-old a decade ago and was harshly left out of the team the following year when he was replaced by Cameron Bancroft. Ironically, Renshaw’s last Tests in that initial stint with the team were in Australia’s previous series against Bangladesh in 2017.
He has made sporadic appearances since while honing his game but in recent times has been a consistent presence in white ball squads and was the best performing batter on the recent limited overs tour of Bangladesh where the hosts best Australia in the ODI series.
More recently, Renshaw was part of the extended 19-man training squad in Brisbane ahead of the Darwin Test. Skipper Pat Cummins had alluded to the likelihood of a batting change after the nine-wicket loss to Bangladesh.
“I think it’s a balance of it’s one Test, but it’s also a bit of a trend as well, so trying to work out do you need to intervene now, or let it play out, and you think it’s the way forward,” Cummins said.
“That’s the question over the next couple of days, we’ll sit down and have a think, selectors will have a think, is there something there that’s going to take us forward, or is it starting to become a trend that we think needs to be changed.
“It’s pretty clear it’s not quite functioning as well as we’d like as a group, so I’m sure the batters will get together and talk. Review some footage, review methods, their approaches to how they were this week. If we need to make some changes to our style, we’ve got a week or so and we better do it pretty quickly.”
Former Test opener and fellow Queenslander Matthew Hayden has been an outspoken advocate for Renshaw’s return to Test cricket at the top of the order.
“I want some experience at the top,” Hayden said on Seven. “I want to see Matt Renshaw and I’ve been saying this for at least 12 months. I think he is match fit … I think the selectors knew what he was, now I want to see what he actually is.”
More to come
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.
